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Release No: 499-03July 10, 2003

DCIS Agents Launch 18-Company Search in Tech Transfer Case

Joseph E. Schmitz, Department of Defense Inspector General, announced today that agents from the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) and the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) executed search warrants on 18 U.S. companies in ten states as part of an ongoing investigation regarding illegal transfer of military components in violation of the Arms Export Control Act.

DCIS agents, working with Department of Homeland Security ICE agents, launched a multi-state execution of search warrants in Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas, and Wisconsin. Additionally, DCIS and ICE agents served a total of eight subpoenas and conducted one "consent search."

Each of the firms is suspected of exporting military technology on the U.S. Munitions List without obtaining the appropriate license from the U.S. Department of State. Among the military technology allegedly included in the exports were components for the F-4 Phantom, F-5 Tiger and F-14 Tomcat aircraft, and the Hawk Missile System. The companies allegedly shipped these components to a London-based company, Multicore, LTD., which also operated under the name AKS Industries. U.S. authorities found that Multicore London has ties to the Iranian military.

In June 2001, DCIS and ICE agents (then known as U.S. Customs agents) arrested two Multicore officials, Saeed Homayouni and Yew Leng Fung. Homayouni and Yew, both of Bakersfield, Calif., entered plea agreements in Federal District Court. Homayouni pleaded guilty to one count of Conspiracy to Violate the Arms Export Control Act and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). Yew pleaded guilty to one count of Misprision of a Felony relating to the provisions of the Arms Export Act and the IEEPA. Both were incarcerated.

The Multicore investigation determined that Homayouni and Yew purchased sensitive military technology from vendors in the United States. The parts were shipped to Bakersfield where they remained in private storage units until shipped out of the country to Singapore without the required export licenses using a fictitious business entity. The parts were then transshipped from Singapore to Iran.

In August 2002, British authorities provided DCIS and ICE with evidence disclosing that a multitude of U.S. companies conducted business transactions with Multicore London, even after the federal agents raided Multicore’s Bakersfield facilities. DCIS and ICE then launched investigations into U.S. companies doing business with Multicore London, leading to yesterday’s execution of the warrants.